Obama to announce $2 billion in energy research fund

By Claudia Assis

President Barack Obama is expected to call Friday for an energy fund that would spend $2 billion over 10 years to focus on research on “green” fuel sources for vehicles.

The proposal would be funded mostly from royalties the government gets from offshore drilling, administration officials said in a teleconference with reporters.

No additional drilling would be needed; instead, more money is expected from streamlining the permitting process and increased production, among other sources.

Obama is scheduled to make the announcement during a tour Friday afternoon of the Energy Department’s Argonne National Laboratory outside Chicago. Argonne, a science and engineering facility, has done extensive work on renewable energy.

The money would be spent on research that is not “adequately funded by the private sector,” the administration officials said.

The research would focus on a range of technologies and non-oil fuels such as biofuels and natural gas.

The White House officials said the proposal had already garnered “bipartisan interest.”

The proposal is part of the goals Obama put forth in the State of the Union in January, when the president unveiled his Energy Security Trust plan.

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